I'd Lie
by Spiederman-Jonaslvr08
Summary: She loves him, the same as she always has, but he's yet to return it. Forced to pick between waiting on him, or her future, she's not sure which life altering decision to make. The boy who's been there forever but never realized, or taking new chances?
1. You Belong With Me

**Okay....so it's been forever since I've put anything up on this site (I'm not entirely sure how long exactly, but if someone was to tell it'd been even a year I wouldn't be surprised). All of my fanfic's got deleted, apparently they broke the rules of the site, and when I tried to post them on different sites I realized my fan base had been scatted across the web as more and more Jonas related fics were taken off of . After that, I lost my passion for writing. I've attempted to continue those stories, as well as to continue the ones I started but never finished. Unfortunately, I've had little to no success. I did however manage to start a new story with an entirely different cast of characters and a nice plot taking form inside my head.**

**I've loved this show since I was little, and it's my current obsession. I've read every Carlos/DA fanfic on here and have tried (with no success) at finding other sites with these stories. Anyhow, I absolutely adore that couple, but I love the show in general. It's my current favorite (when you think about how it replaced House, Third Watch, and Law and Order: SVU you have to wonder if a second grader has taken over my brain). Anyway, I've wanted to continue writing for a while now and I thought this might be a new place to start with fresh ideas and characters. I hope you enjoy :)**

**Oh! And yes, it's going to be Carlos/DA, they're my favorite couple (I, personally, think they were made for each other. Even as third graders their feelings were obvious), but it will include all the other characters as well. More of Carlos, DA, Ralphie and probably Phoebe than the rest, but they will all be there. I promise :) It's just hard to juggle all eight characters at one time.**

**Chapter One**

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**_MSB_**

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Staring out the window, DA watched yet another bolt of lightning illuminate the dark sky outside. It'd been storming nonstop for two days now, and the sky outside Walkerville High School didn't offer any promise of it letting up. Cringing as thunder rumbled through the clouds, _again_, she turned in her seat and attempted to focus on what the teacher was saying. Unfortunately, her honors biology class was currently learning about plants. Not only was this something she'd been studying every year since, what, second grade? But in her third grade science class Ms. Frizzle had used the magic school bus to take her and her classmates _inside_ Phoebe's flower. But that's another story.

Groaning, DA preferred to pay attention in her classes no matter how boring the subject seemed so she could keep her grades up, she turned her attention back to the paper in front of her. She'd attempted to pay attention for the first ten minutes of class, but had given up on taking notes when the teacher started lecturing on the xylem and phloem. Instead, she had begun doodling. Unfortunately she had never been much of an artist, and had soon grown bored of drawing hearts, stars, music notes, and other random things in the margin of her notebook over and over. Shifting in the hard plastic seat, she crossed her left leg over her right and read over the poem she'd written in place of notes on cellular respiration.

_You're on the phone with your girlfriend,_

_She's upset_

_She's going off about something that you said_

_Cause she doesn't get your humor like I do_

_I'm in the room it's a typical Tuesday night_

_I'm listening to the kind of music she doesn't like_

_And she'll never know your story like I do_

Ever since first grade, when DA had been the only kid in the class more interested in learning than in playing games, she'd been known as the girl who got the straight A's. And only that. True, she loved science - especially life science's now that she'd gotten older – and yes she had maintained a 4.0 ever since seventh grade. She worked hard for her grades and very rarely complained about school; she even went so far as to admit to her friends that she enjoyed it. But outside of her 'bookworm' classification, she enjoyed other things.

She loved the beach, she liked fast cars (and adored her royal blue '09 mustang), and she liked to write poetry. She'd been doing it since seventh grade, right around the time she realized a certain boy she had a crush on might enjoy having her around as his best friend, but he wasn't interested in dating the smart girl. She'd only told her best friend, Phoebe, about her secret obsession though. No matter how many notebooks she filled up and shoved under her bed. Once she'd started, she'd found it hard to stop. And while most of her writing _did_ focus around boy drama, she'd branched out to write about anything and everything that happened to her. But that was a different story, to.

Biting her lower lip, she looked up and glanced across the class room. Her other best friend, Carlos Ramone, was sitting at one of the lab tables with his girlfriend. Shannon Geoffrey was captain of the varsity cheerleading squad. While most of her team mates were decent girls (outside of their varsity complex), managing to make good grades and have friends outside the team and actually act like normal human beings, Shannon was the typical cheerleader you saw in all the teen movies.

Her dyed red hair, which made her normally beautiful copper colored locks glow bright red, was pulled back in a tight ponytail with not a hair out of place. Her make-up, caked on as it was, was impeccable, her long eyelash's fluttering at Carlos as he rested his hand on her thigh and rubbed his thumb against her knee. She giggled, ducking her head and leaning closer to him. She wasn't that tall, maybe 5'5, but she was tan and muscular, and while every other part of her body was toned and lean, she had full c-cup breasts (DA only knew this because of how much Shannon bragged about them in the locker room).

DA sighed, turning away from the sight before Shannon – or worse, _Carlos_ – could catch her staring. That was the last thing she needed. Shannon hated her because of her friendship with Carlos, and she didn't need Shannon draping herself all over her best friend anymore than the cheerleader already was. It made Carlos look just as bad as Shannon. Plus, she knew how angry Carlos got whenever the two of them fought, he couldn't stand the fact they didn't get along. He had long since gotten over trying to get them to become friends though, ever since he had let DA where his letter jacket when she got cold in class one day and Shannon had gone off the wall…in front of the entire varsity soccer team. DA never wore the jacket again.

Picking up her favorite purple pen, she focused on her notebook once again and added to her new poem, scrawling more words in royal purple ink underneath what she'd already written.

_But she wears short skirts, I wear t-shirts_

_She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers_

_Waiting for the day when you'll wake up and find_

_That what you're looking for, has been here the whole time_

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**_MSB_**

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**Okay, originally I'd planned for this to be MUCH longer. Like, pages longer with two or three more scenes added on. But than I realized with the way I wanted to introduce the story adding all of that on made it seem cluttered and confusing (to my mind anyway, which I'll admit has gotten out of shape when it comes to this) so I left it at just this one scene. It introduces DA and Carlos, and Shannon, and I think it shed's a good amount of light on how DA has developed and changed since we last saw her (many, many years ago on a Magic School Bus ;) with a crazy teacher and a genius pet lizard). **

**The next chapter will have the other characters (I'm hoping to include all of them) and will be longer, I promise :) Constructive criticism is welcome, I feel I need it after my extended vacation. Any hints or tips? Feel free to leave them. Otherwise, just let me know what you think :) Oh! And let me know of any other sites with MSB fanfiction on them please.**


	2. He shoots, he scores

**Okay, you've been warned that I'm not to happy with the way this chapter came out. I just could NOT for the life of me come up with a good way to introduce Carlos! This is the fourth time I rewrote this chapter, the fourth different story line....I just could not get it right. I've come to the conclusion that this is the best I'm going to be able to get it. So...here you go! It has Carlos, Ralphie, Tim, Wanda (kind of), Phoebe and Arnold. Keesha's the only one I haven't used so she will definitely be in chapter three! By the way, Phoebe and Arnold are dating. Just saying.**

**Chapter two**

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**MSB**

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When he was little, Carlos hadn't cared for much. Soccer, funny jokes (well, _he_ thought they were funny), and his friends. And food maybe. But not much. He liked to say he preferred the simple things in life as opposed to that he just didn't care. Because he did care, he just didn't want to save every dying animal on the planet (- cough – Phoebe – cough -) or win an award for the prettiest rock out there like a certain red head he knew. It just wasn't him.

Bringing his foot back once again, he swung it forward and kicked the blue and silver soccer ball towards the net in front of him with as much driving force as his body was capable of. It soared over Ralphie's head (despite the fact the 5'11 Italian had jumped and reached for the ball) and hit the net behind him moving so fast it threatened to knock the entire goal post over. Oh yeah, he cared about soccer.

"_Geez_ Carlos, are you _trying_ to kill me?!" Spinning around to face his best friend once again, Ralphie Tennelli stood gaping at the smirking Hispanic boy standing farther down the field. "If I had known I was going to end up in the emergency room I wouldn't have agreed to help you!"

"Stop being so dramatic" Toeing another ball closer, this one purple and gold, Carlos wiggled it around with his cleat until it was placed just so and backed up a few steps. He needed to practice kicking to the lower left; he'd always had issues getting the ball in that direction and was determined to fix that by the time soccer season started. "You didn't have to do this, you know. Considering the type of goalie you are it's not helping much more than an empty net would anyway"

Ralphie 'hmph'd', bending and placing his hands firmly on his knees, glaring at his best friend as Carlos chuckled. The two were best friends sure, but they were fiercely competitive and known to break out into stupid but intense arguments. "I heard that!"

"You were supposed to!" And, with that, Carlos sent this ball soaring for Ralphie's head. Sure, he was supposed to be going for the lower left hand corner of the net…but he'd never been very good at aiming in that direction.

Ralphie yelped – yes, _yelped_, like a puppy – before diving for the ground, firmly crossing his arms over the back of his head. The soccer ball, passing through the air in the exact spot Ralphie's head had been in just two seconds before, harmlessly bounced off the net and rolled across the ground, coming to a stop when it collided with Ralphie's side. Pushing himself up, he retrieved his hat and tugged it back down on his head before kicking the ball back in Carlos' direction. It didn't get anywhere near the laughing boy, Ralphie wasn't much of a soccer star, but he had made his point. He'd had enough with their 'practice'.

**xXx**

Half an hour later, Carlos was draped across the leather couch in his family room, flipping through the channels with his opened biology textbook sitting, ignored, on the coffee table. Ralphie was in the love seat, texting Wanda, and Tim was sitting on the floor with his back against the coffee table. He, however, was actually reading the chapter he and Carlos we're supposed to be doing their project on. They'd only been in the Ramone house for about ten minutes and already the artist was deeply engrossed in comparing plant cell's to those of an animal, and Carlos hadn't even bothered to read one sentence yet. Of course, it was safe to assume about an hour from Carlos _still_ wouldn't have read that sentence.

It's not that he didn't care about his grades, because he did. A lot more than he had when he was little anyway (he got all A's and B+'s now). He was just a champion procrastinator. He liked to watch TV or play soccer or goof off with his friends until the very last minute (his homework was frequently done ten minutes before he had to turn it in) and despite the fact both his parents and his best friend, DA Parker, frequently chastised him for his habits, he had yet to change them. His strategy worked for him. They also bugged him to clean his room, go to bed before one AM, and be a little more careful. Carlos didn't see any of those happening either.

Still, he knew it wasn't right to let Tim work on their project by himself and reluctantly stopped flipping the channel (10 Deadliest Sharks wasn't a bad show to watch anyway) and lifted his textbook into his lap. He might have been more interested in this if it was on a topic he hadn't been studying since he was six. Glancing out the corner of his eye, he was pleased to discover Tim sketching the two cells on a free piece of paper he'd had in his binder. He was just as good an artist as he had been when they were kids (okay, he was a way _better_ artist than he'd been when they were kids) and Carlos found himself thanking God that his partner could draw. He couldn't even draw a stick figure right!

"Um, should I just come up with the ten facts about each?" He asked, staring at the chart on page 182 of his book, which was comparing the two cells. He'd have to stretch it a little, re-wording the same fact, but he could get ten of them with out having to read the sections. Besides, he knew their biology teacher had a crush on him – who cared if she was married, Carlos had caught her staring at him plenty of times – and that he would get away with it. "Since you're drawing them?"

"Yeah, sure" Tim nodded, his pencil flying over the paper as he began to add the smaller details and label the larger ones he'd already put in. He'd won the county wide art contest over the summer, and as a result was a lot more confident in his work now. Even if it was just a biology project. "That seems fair"

"Know what _isn't_ fair?" Ralphie interrupted, loudly and rudely, his gaze focused intently on the place where the warm maroon walls met the white ceiling. "When the girl you're after tries to tell you how she feels about another guy"

Rolling his eyes, Carlos pushed his book off his lap and left it sitting abandoned on the edge of his couch. He wouldn't be looking at it again until he got to biology on Friday. As long as he and Tim weren't called first, it'd be fine. Besides, he knew that when Ralphie started to complain about girls, he got so obnoxious about it that it was impossible to even entertain the idea of thinking about something else. And Wanda was his favorite girl to complain about. He and Tim were in for it, and he held back a chuckle when he noticed Tim sigh and settle in for Ralphie's no doubt pointless rambling about one of their oldest friends.

The two had dated in seventh grade, back when Ralphie still had some of his baby fat - that had disappeared when he went from 5'4 to 5'11 practically over night - and hadn't yet started playing football and therefore didn't have the muscle definition he now did (Carlos was not so secretly jealous of his biceps, although his own ab's were at least as nice as Ralphie's). They'd gone out for three months – an ungodly amount of time for thirteen year olds – before Ralphie had broken up with her.

Wanda, always a slightly wild and free spirited person, had developed into a unique mix of an athletic tomboy and a notorious flirt. When Ralphie had caught her flirting with Phil, the one boy in their grade neither he nor Carlos could stand, he had decided he'd had enough of wondering just how far Wanda would go with her flirting and still consider it to be 'okay'. Ralphie tended to get jealous when it came to his girlfriend. Unfortunately, two days after Ralphie had broken up with her Wanda had gotten together with Phil. Sure, she'd only dated him for about three weeks, but it'd been enough to crush Ralphie – who _did_ have feelings no matter how much he liked to hide them. It'd taken at least five months before the gang had felt they no longer needed to take sides, and another three before Ralphie and Wanda would hang out with all of them again. Still, Ralphie had never quite recovered.

"- and she expects me to talk to him and try to help her. I mean, really! Me? She expects _me_ to set her up with _Phil_?! What the f-"

"My parent's are in the kitchen" Carlos interrupted, smirking when Ralphie abruptly ended his rant and instead huffed and bought one of the olive green throw pillows down and held it over his face. "And Wanda probably just thinks because it's been three years its okay now. If you don't want to do it than don't"

Tim nodded, though he was collecting his stuff and putting it back in his backpack. "Seriously man, just tell her you don't want to get involved" He shrugged, slinging one strap over his shoulder as he stood up. "It's not like she can _make_ you"

Carlos snorted at that. Wanda, who was the scariest person he knew when armed (even if her weapon was nothing but a plastic spoon) and still semi-terrifying without a weapon if she wanted to be, could get just about anyone to do anything. Although her whole 'provoking fear' strategy worked better on them than on the girls. Plus, she could get any other guy in their grade to do what she wanted just by flirting with him. It was funny to watch, really. With Ralphie however, she just had to ask usually and he would do it. _That_…well that was just sad.

"I wouldn't say anything if I were you Ramone" Ralphie snapped, standing up as well. Slipping his phone into the back pocket of his jeans he yanked his untouched back pack off the floor. "DA's had _you_ whipped since fifth grade when she fell off the playground and broke her arm and you thought she was gonna die when Phoebe told you she went to the hospital"

"Hey!" Standing up as well, Carlos wasn't one to stay sitting down when provoked, he leveled Ralphie's glare with one of his own. "DA's my best friend of course I'm going to help her if she asks for it. At least my _ex-girlfriend_ isn't cracking a whip over my head!"

"Guys!" Tim interfered, slipping between the two boys and glancing wearily between them. "I don't want to have to tell DA_ or _Wanda that you two killed each other so can you just chill?"

"Notice how we're all talking about DA, _not_ your girlfriend?" With that Ralphie, slipped past Tim and headed towards the back door so he wouldn't have to pass Carlos' parents on the way out. Of course, they were bound to notice the way he had slammed the door.

**xXx**

Humming to herself, Phoebe Therese scratched her dog – a black lab mix she'd adopted with a big white splotch on his chest that had been named Elvis – absentmindedly behind his ears and stared out the window. It had stopped raining for about four hours today, and she'd been glad for the break. The gloom had not let up for even five minutes however, and now, at eight o'clock at night, the storm had picked up once again. Sighing, she looked down at her dog and smiled at the happy expression on his face and didn't even notice how he had started to drool on the leg of her jeans.

"Well, Ralphie just stormed out of Carlos' house" Arnold sighed from his seat across the kitchen table from Phoebe. Picking up yet another cookie – Phoebe made amazing homemade chocolate chip cookies – and dunked it into the glass of milk in front of him before taking a bite. "They got in the Wanda/DA fight again"

Ignoring the crumbs Arnold had sprayed across the table when he attempted to explain _why_ Ralphie would storm out of his best friend's house, Phoebe sighed and continued to pet her dogs soft head. "Of course they were. Isn't this the third time this month?"

Arnold nodded, this time choosing to swallow before answering her. Apparently he had noticed the crumbs he'd left last time he'd spoken. "I think so. But you know they'll be back to joking and laughing tomorrow like nothing ever happened. That's what always happens"

"They both need to just admit how they feel" Phoebe insisted, her eyes darting to Arnolds cell phone as it once against vibrated against the wooden tabletop. "It'd make things much easier on all of us. What happened now?"

"Nothing, Ralphie's complaining to me about how Carlos has the nerve to say something about Wanda when we _all_ know about the hold DA has on him"

Phoebe rolled her eyes before looking out the window again. In her opinion, it'd be much easier if they would _both_ just own up to how they felt. She might be biased, because she knew of how strongly DA felt for the raven haired boy, but she couldn't help the fact the fights that broke out between Carlos and Ralphie over the two girls annoyed her. To be fair, she wanted DA to own up to her feelings to. Not now, of course, it'd be wrong to make her move while Carlos was dating another girl – no matter how much they didn't like her (even Phoebe could say a few mean things about Shannon). She just wished they could all work these things out so that could be friends again and hang out the way they had before.

She was pretty positive most girls her age didn't wish they could go back to third grade.

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**MSB**

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**Okay, the next chapter will have DA and Carlos together, I promise :) Oh, and by the way this is taking place their junior year. I realize in most places you take biology your sophomore year, but I'm trying to only write about them in classes that I've taken so I don't have to make stuff up that will than make absolutely no sense. I wanted them all to be sixteen soooo....yeah. Just letting you know. And the chapters should be getting longer as we get farther into the story, okay?**

**Please let me know what you guys think of my story, it helps me keep writing and makes me happy :)**


	3. His favorite colors green

**I'm so sorry about the long wait guys. I went on vacation for a week, and when I came home I learned I had a virus on my computer that had progressed so much in a week I couldn't open any program or files on my computer. Actually, I have three virus's on my computer. My dad managed to get one of them off so I can get to the internet, but I still can't get to anything else. So I wrote this entire chapter on this website using a document I'd already uploaded. I deleted what I'd uploaded and wrote this in a hurry, about half the time as it usually takes me. As a result I didn't have the editing capabilities I usually do so I apologize for my mistakes.**

**I also apologize for this not being nearly as good I wanted it to be. I had to rewrite it, and I couldn't remember how I connected things and made everything flow the first time and I had to leave entire parts of this chapter out because I couldn't remember how I did them the first time. Still, I think I did an okay job with it...let me know what you think?**

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**xXx**

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Sighing, DA closed her arms across her chest and hunched her shoulders forward in an attempt to shield herself from the cold. It was a warm night for December, yes, but it was still _so_ _cold_. And as a firm lover of the beach, DA was _not _a fan of the cold. At all. Sucking her lower lip into her mouth, she nibbled on it gently as her gaze lifted from watching her feet, instead looking ahead to the fire pit in the corner of the Ramone's backyard. Already she could feel some of the warmth, her muscles slowly starting to unclench as she grew closer to the flames. Sitting on one of the bench's around the fire, her best friend was staring into the red-orange flames, hunched as well. When she'd started over here, she'd had every intention of calling Carlos out on how he'd completely ditched her earlier. Her dad was replacing the battery in her Mustang, and Carlos was _supposed _to drive her home. When she'd gotten to his locker after school though, she'd been informed by the girl with the locker beside Carlos' that he had already left with Shannon. Not wanting to believe he would have just left her there, she'd hurried out to the student parking lot. But when his car wasn't there, she'd been forced to admit that he had. Thank god Ralphie hadn't had weight lifting after school on Thursday's, or she would have had to walk home in the cold.

Seeing him now, she just couldn't be mad at him anymore. He looked like a little boy whose birthday cake had been dropped on the ground before he'd had the chance to take a bite of the sugary delicious-ness. Not to mention that he was her best friend, and ever since the third grade she hadn't managed to be at him for to long at a time. She'd made it a week once, but that was probably only because it was over spring break and he had gone on a family trip to Mexico so she hadn't seen him. One look into his big brown puppy dog eyes, and she would have caved. She always did, unfortunately.

"Hey" Her voice was barely loud enough to be heard above the crackling of the flames as she settled down beside him on the bench. Glancing over, she took in his hunched over profile and couldn't help the pang she felt over how sad her best friend seemed. Giving up any hope of chewing him out, or even managing to hold onto a _shred_ of her anger, she let her eyes fall back onto the dancing flames in front of them.

He nodded when he heard her voice, and shifted above an inch to the left as she had sat down, but he didn't acknowledge her in any other way. She knew not to push him though, he would open up to her when he wanted to, she had to give him his space. "Hey" He finally breathed, tilting his head enough to glance over at her.

The corner of his lips pulled up into the slightest smile, his hair falling over his warm brown eyes to create an irresistible look. She couldn't help returning the smile, or the chuckle that escaped her lips when he nudged her knee with his own. The muscles in her back and neck finally unclenched completely, and she sunk into the stone bench, her body now more at ease and comfortable. Just as she'd always been unable to stay mad at him, she'd never been able to be uncomfortable with him - well, there were those few weeks when they had hit puberty....They talked about anything and everything, no subject was to taboo. And they liked it that way. But even if they could say anything to each other, sometimes just sitting and enjoying the silence was much better. So when he didn't offer up any other words, neither did she, instead enjoying the warmth of the fire and watching intently as the flames reached for the deep purple sky, dancing around each other. She could feel him looking at her though, and only made it about ten seconds before she couldn't help but look back.

Her blue eyes met his chocolate brown ones, and they sat there just looking for each other. So much could be said with out even opening their mouths, like that he was just as happy about her being there as she was. But after what seemed like forever, but was probably only a few minutes, of just looking at each other, she had to say something. "So," She started, looking away once again and scuffing her toe against the ground. "why are you hiding in your backyard?"

"What makes you think I'm hiding?" Even though he was trying to sound all tough, they both knew it was all an act. "Maybe I just enjoy a nice fire every now and than, ever think of that?"

She scoffed, her blond hair swinging as she shook her head back and forth. "Yeah, and I enjoy being forced to play football in P.E every other day"

"You never were one for sports" He chuckled, shifting his weight so instead of leaning forward, he was tilted back with his arms behind him and his weight leaning back into the palms of his hands. "You'd rather map the stars than run around a field" He must have sensed the hand flying towards the back of his head, because he ducked it down and held up his arm to block her just in time. "Not that there's anything wrong with that Mrs. Parker"

"Nice save" She couldn't help sticking her tongue out at him even though she knew how ridiculous it was and how childish she was acting, he just had that effect on her. But he just laughed before sticking his tongue out at her as well. "So, are you going to tell me or do I have to take your soccer ball hostage?" Nodding to the old, beaten up ball sitting on the ground by her friend's feet she raised an eyebrow as she waited for his answer.

"Woah, woah, woah" Holding up his hands, he turned so his upper body was facing her before kicking the ball underneath the bench and therefore out of her reach. "No need to go and threaten Lola"

She rolled her eyes at him, not able to get over the fact he had actually named a soccer ball. No matter how many times she heard him refer to it as 'Lola' - and sternly remind anyone who referred to it as a ball that 'she' had a name - she would never get over it. But it was just part of who he was, and she'd come to accept it of him in the fourth grade. She'd given him the ball for his birthday back than. She'd also learned that day that he was born on September 17, not the 18 like she had thought, and his favorite color was now green, not blue. Still, he'd seemed ecstatic when she'd given him the royal blue ball with a silver ribbon tied around it, than promptly given it a name and hadn't gone anywhere without it for the next two years. It was part of his charm. That and his stupid jokes, his secret love of watching the stars and catching firefly's - he'd never admit it to anyone because he thought it made him sound gay - and the fact he could actually play the guitar sitting in the corner of his room, and really well actually. But that was just another secret of his that only she knew. Another sign of how close they really were.

He laughed at her, shaking his head at the blond girl sitting only a few inches to his right. "What? You got a beef with Lola?"

"No Carlos, of course not" She huffed, trying as hard as she could to hold her composure and not show him how much she wanted to laugh with him. "Why would I have any issues with a _soccer ball_?" She asked, emphasizing her words before turning her 'HA!' expression on him and raising an eyebrow.

"Maybe because you know I love her more than you!" He threw back with a smirk, which only grew wider when DA'S jaw dropped open. She immediately cursed herself for her reaction, but didn't have time to offer back a witty remark before the smirk slowly slid off his face. "Of course, Lola doesn't listen quite as well as you do..."

She couldn't help the way her chest swelled with pride at his mention of how he could always talk to her. At least, that's how she could took it, because she knew that he always could. "Maybe because you've kicked that crap out of her one to many times" She mumbled, though she knew the light banter between them was over and settled in to help her friend with his problem. She knew that she could always count on him to help her with anything, and wanted him to think of her the same way.

"Yeah, maybe" He let out what she assumed was supposed to be a laugh, but that came out as more of a sigh. Leaning forward once again, he hunched over and rested one hand against his knee, the other running through his raven colored locks. She nodded as he let his bangs fall back over his eyes and pulled his hand from his hair. "Shannon broke up with me today"

Of all the things Carlos could have told her, this was probably the one she was least expecting to hear. He was more likely to announce that he was moving to Mars - something he could easily do with a quick phone call to Mrs. Frizzle if he had really wanted to - than that the obnoxious read head had broken up with him. Of course, she wasn't exactly what one would call sad over the news. 'Completely ecstatic' was a much better explanation of her feelings. Not that she was going to tell him that, what kind of heartless best friend would do that? Instead she slowly nodded, the news still sinking in. As happy as she was to hear this, it was still hard to believe. Just a few hours ago Shannon had been draped all over Carlos at lunch, what could have changed in such a short amount of time?

"Why?" She asked, watching his face closely as he tilted his head just enough to be able to look at her. "Why would she break up with you? She loves you"

He scoffed, his left hand curling into a fist. "Please, Shannon doesn't love anyone. She just uses people to get what she wants" As much as DA agreed with that statement, she could see the sadness on Carlos' face despite how hard and sharp his voice sounded. "On the way home today she started saying some stuff about you and I defended you" DA could hear him swallow in the still air. "And when she got mad and said I had to pick between the two of you, I told her we'd been best friend since third grade. Sooo, she slapped me and ripped the necklace I gave her for her birthday off. Than threw it at me"

"She always was one for dramatics" DA regretted saying that as soon as the words left her lips, she hadn't realized what she'd said until it was to late. But Carlos was nodding, so she didn't feel so bad about what she'd said. "Why would you do that though?"

"You're my best friend DA" He shrugged, turning the full effect of his smile on her. She wasn't sure if the warm feeling in her stomach was from the look he was giving her or the way he said DA - the nickname he'd given her at the open house for third grade when he decided 'Dorothy Anne' took too much time to say - but she knew this was not the right time to be feeling like that. Not when they were talking about him getting dumped. "I wasn't going to let her say that stuff about you. And before you ask, no I'm not going to tell you"

He was always trying to protect her, and was always making her mad in the process. She was a big girl and she could handle herself, but she wasn't going to push it. She probably didn't want to know anyway, and on top of that she was sure it wasn't something the cheerleader hadn't already told her. Besides, the fact Carlos would choose her over his girlfriend was a much bigger deal to her than whatever Shannon had said. She smiled back before sucking her lower lip into her mouth, dragging her teeth across it.

"You do that a lot" Carlos commented absently, tucking his ankle under the bench and toeing Lola enough for her to roll back under it and rest lightly between his feet. Slowly, he rolled it back and forth between his heals and stared into the fire pit, missing the expression on her face. "Sorry I didn't take you home today" He sighed, reminding DA of why she had come to his house in the first place. The anger that flared within her quickly went away though as soon as she took a look at him. "I know I was supposed to but Shannon said there was some emergency with her little sister and I needed to get her home and I knew that Ralphie didn't have lifting today" He rushed to add, stalling at the end of his hurried sentence, his lips curving up in the corners once again. "Turns out the emergency was that she didn't know what lip gloss looked better with her outfit"

Dorothy Anne tried her hardest to hold in the laughter bubbling in her chest, but she only made it about three seconds before it burst through her lips. Before she knew it Carlos was laughing with her, and they were leaning against each other to keep from slipping off the bench and onto the ground. Sure, it wasn't _that_funny - not really - but they were both letting out their emotions through their laughter. Yet another thing they did together. And as they quieted down she could see from both the expression on Carlos' face and his body language that he felt at least a little bit better. Noticing for the first time how much the fire had died down, DA stayed where she was - leaning against his side - and shivered in the cold air. She wasn't sure how long they'd been sitting out there, but she knew the cold air was biting into her skin and she was not enjoying the feeling.

"Hey is that my sweatshirt?" He asked, looking down at the royal blue sweatshirt DA had thrown on before leaving her house (she really should have put a jacket over it). She looked down at the white lettering spelling out 'Walkerville High Soccer Team' in a circle around the soccer ball printed on the front of the sweatshirt.

She hadn't noticed it when she'd grabbed it from her closet and pulled it over her head in her rush over - she'd been eager to yell at him before she lost her nerve (so much for that) - but she was wearing his JV soccer sweatshirt from their freshman year. Carlos had been so proud of it at the time, he'd been worried he wouldn't be good enough and would be stuck on the freshman team, but instead had been a starter on JV. DA had stolen the sweatshirt one day when she'd gotten mad at him and had hid it in her closet. Carlos had gone insane for a few weeks before becoming distracted and forgetting all about the missing sweatshirt. DA had never owned up to stealing it and Carlos had just assumed he'd accidentally left it laying around somewhere.

"Um, yeah" She mumbled, glancing up at him sheepishly. "Sorry?"

He laughed, shaking his head at the very much embarrassed and now blushing blond sitting beside him. "It's fine DA" He smiled, looking much happier than he had when she had first gotten there. "It looks better on you anyway"

She was sure by now her cheeks were bright pink, and she was glad she could blame the color on the cold wind. She really should go home and study, she had a big test tomorrow in Spanish, and foreign languages had always been her weakest subject. But as long as Carlos wanted to sit out there with her she was going to stay, even if they didn't say anything. As close as they were, and even though they could always talk about anything, it was rare that they got moments like this to themselves anymore. Either one of the gang was around or he had a girlfriend or she was busy trying to keep her grades up or he was playing soccer. She couldn't remember the last time they had had time to themselves. So despite the fact her fingers were going numb and she was sure she would fall asleep at some point in school tomorrow, she was in no hurry to leave.

But she was sure their moment was over when she felt the vibration against her hip. She'd left her phone at home, so she knew it was Carlos' Dare virbrating from the pocket of his own hoodie. She tried to pull away from him, but the arm he'd casually let fall behind her tightened just enough to let her know he wanted her to stay before loosening once again. Still, she couldn't help glancing at the screen as he pulled the phone from his pocket.

Or the way she smiled when he pressed 'ignore', and Shannon's smiling face disappeared from the screen.

* * *

**xXx**

* * *

**So before you even think it, we have NOT seen the last of Shannon, and this isn't done yet. I know exactly how I'm going to end this story, I'm just not entirely sure how I'm gonna get there yet (and I don't plan on it happening soon). But i'm working on it and I hope you guys love it. Telling me your opinion on my writing will help me get there :) haha**


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